DIY: How to Bake Homemade Baby Food Dog Treats

Does your dog always beg for table scraps and never miss an opportunity to get some people food? Some foods are too rich to be healthy for pets, but others are a good source of vitamins. If you want to add more variety to your dog’s diet, you should try baking homemade treats with a few simple ingredients such as baby food and flour.

Can Dogs Eat Baby Food?

Veterinarians actually recommend giving baby food to dogs who suffer from gastrointestinal problems. This is a bland food that is easy to digest.

Vets recommend that you use stage II meat baby food and avoid jars with seasonings such as onion or garlic powder since these are toxic to dogs. You should keep some baby food around if you have a dog – this is a great way to get your dog to eat something when your pooch is not feeling good. You can even hide medication in baby food and your dog won’t notice a thing.

You can also bake delicious biscuits with baby food and a few other simple ingredients. Depending on the baby food flavors you choose, these treats will be rich in proteins or add more vitamins to your pet’s diet.

What Is The Best Baby Food For Dogs?

The baby food aisle has many different flavors to choose from. The problem is that some of these jars are high in carbs. This wouldn’t be an issue for a baby, but because baby food is a supplement that you are bringing to your dog’s diet, you need to choose the jars with a low carb content and let your dog get their carbs from their usual food.

Most fruit baby foods are too rich in carbs and don’t contain any proteins. Some veggie baby foods such as sweet potatoes and green beans can be a good addition to your baby food dog treats because of the proteins and vitamins, but other veggie baby foods are too rich in carbs.

How To Make Baby Food Dog Treats

Using baby food is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make dog treats. These homemade baked treats will add variety to your dog’s diet and you will be able to reward your pup without having to worry about preservatives, sweeteners, meat by-products and other ingredients typically found in store-bought treats.

The trick to baking tasty homemade baby food treats is to add flour to thicken the baby food. You can easily tweak this recipe and add more ingredients, or bake the biscuits a few extra minutes to get crunchy treats. If you have a young puppy or an old dog, take the biscuits out of the oven a couple minutes early for some soft chewy treats.

There are a few things you should know about flour before you start baking dog treats.

Can Dogs Eat Flour?

Dogs can eat flour. In fact, wheat flour is one of the main ingredients in dog food. There is a controversy surrounding the use of this ingredient because some brands use far too much wheat.

You should check the ingredients on the dog food you usually purchase. High-quality dog food will list meat, vegetables, and meat flour. A low-quality product will typically list several forms of grain, such as wheat flour, wheat shorts or wheat middlings. These don’t add any nutritional value to the food and are used for their bulking effect.

Some low-quality foods and treats use soy and corn flour, which don’t have much nutritional value for dogs.

Ideally, you should purchase foods and treats that contain whole grain flours or look for alternatives like lentil, chickpea, rice, or millet flour and use these flours when baking dog treats.

You should also know that some dogs are allergic to wheat flour. This is a serious condition usually characterized by symptoms like hair loss, chronic skin infections and ear infections. This condition affects few animals and the symptoms will be hard to ignore so you can bake healthy treats with wheat flour if your dog can eat regular dog food.

Can Dogs Eat Coconut Flour?

Coconut flour is another option worth exploring. It is a little more expensive than wheat flour, but it is low in carbs and rich in iron and proteins.

Nut flours for dogs would also be a good source of proteins and fatty acids. Wheat flour is a good choice if you want to introduce more fiber in your dog’s diet, and brown rice flour would be a healthy option if you want to reduce carb content.

The great thing about baking dog treats is that you don’t have to use the same flour every time. You can even mix two or more different flours to supplement your dog’s diet.

If most of your dog’s diet consists of eating kibbles that contain wheat flour, think about using a different kind of flour to bake homemade biscuits since animals need variety in their diet. And if you want to reward your pup without offering a treat that contains carbs, place a small quantity of meat baby food inside of a hollow bone.

A post shared by Baby And Ox (@babyandox) on Jan 26, 2016 at 6:04am PST

Here are four easy recipes to get you started with baking your own dog treats. Don’t hesitate to experiment and add more ingredients once you figure out what your dog likes!

Two Ingredient Biscuits

This is probably the simplest homemade dog treat recipe you could find. Here is what you will need:

2 cups flour.

2 jars of baby food. Use two jars of meat baby food or mix a jar of meat baby food with a jar of green bean or sweet potato baby foods.

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Mix the flour and baby food until you get a dough you can roll. Use the pin to roll the dough until it is ¼ inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to form the treats and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sweet Potato Baby Food And Oats Biscuits

You can add more ingredients to your dog biscuits:

1 jar sweet potato baby food.

¾ cup flour.

1 egg.

1 tablespoon honey

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Mix the baby food, flour, egg and honey to get a dough you can roll. Cut the treats with cookie cutters and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes.

Note that you don’t have to use all the ingredients in this recipe. Eggs are good for your dog’s skin and coat, oats are a good source of fibers, vitamins, and antioxidants while honey is rich in vitamins, antioxidants and is good for digestion.

Oatmeal Cereal Dog Treats

Grab some baby oatmeal cereal while shopping for baby food. This is a good alternative to using flour for your baby food treats:

1 jar veggie baby food.

1 jar chicken baby food.

1 cup baby oatmeal cereal.

Mix the baby food and the oatmeal cereal until you get a dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it is ¼ inch thick. Cut some dog treat shapes and bake the treats for 20 minutes at 350°F.

Frozen Baby Food Puppy Treats

You can freeze baby food in an ice cube tray for some delicious refreshing treats. You can add some ingredients to the baby food for variety, such as:

A mashed banana.

Some leftover meat.

Small pieces of cheese.

How To Store Homemade Dog Treats

Freezing the baby food treats is your best option for long-term storage. Let the treats cool once they are done baking, and place the baking sheet directly in the freezer so the biscuits can freeze individually. You can then store the frozen biscuits in an airtight container or a freezer bag. The biscuits will stick together if you don’t freeze them individually before throwing them in a freezer bag.

The biscuits should last eight months in the freezer. You can also store them in your fridge for a month as long as you keep them in an airtight container.

If you plan on storing your homemade treats for a while, bake them for two more minutes to make crunchy biscuits. Soft and chewy treats will eventually get soggy in the fridge or freezer.

How Often Should My Dog Eat Baby Food Treats?

Homemade dog treats are healthier than most store-bought biscuits, but remember that treats and snacks shouldn’t exceed 10 percent of what your dog eats. Stay away from fruit baby foods to reduce sugar content, and avoid using flour with little nutritional value.

Making your own dog treats using baby food and flour is quick and easy. Your pooch is going to love these biscuits and you will find that these treats are a healthier alternative to the treats you can buy in stores. Try different types of baby food to figure out what your dog likes best!